Sentinel-5P

Satellite Description

The Copernicus Sentinel-5 Precursor mission is the first Copernicus mission dedicated to monitoring our atmosphere. Copernicus Sentinel-5P is the result of close collaboration between ESA, the European Commission, the Netherlands Space Office, industry, data users and scientists. The mission consists of one satellite carrying the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) instrument. The TROPOMI instrument was co-funded by ESA and The Netherlands.

The main objective of the Copernicus Sentinel-5P mission is to perform atmospheric measurements with high spatio-temporal resolution, to be used for air quality, ozone & UV radiation, and climate monitoring & forecasting. The satellite was successfully launched on 13 October 2017 from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in Russia.

Observation Scenario

• Swath width: 2600 km

• Orbit: Sun-synchronous

• Inclination: 98.7°

• Altitude: 824 km

Sensor Characteristics

The main characteristic of TROPOMI are:

• • Type: Passive grating imaging spectrometer
• • Configuration: Push broom staring (non-scanning) in nadir viewing
• • Spectral: 4 spectrometers, each electronically split in two bands (2 in UV, 2 in VIS, 2 in NIR, 2 in SWIR)
• • Radiometric accuracy (absolute): 1.6% (SWIR) to 1.9% (UV) of the measured earth spectral reflectance.

Spatial Resolution

• Spatial sampling: 7 x 7 km2

Temporal Resolution

16 days

Data Products

The three environmental themes covered by TROPOMI are Air Quality, Stratospheric Ozone Layer and Climate Change Monitoring and Forecasting.

Sentinel-5P data is available as Level-1B and Level-2 data. Information on these products can be found at https://sentiwiki.copernicus.eu/web/s5p-products

Archive Availability

The Sentinel-5P products are freely available to users via the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem | Europe´s eyes on Earth

Data Continuity

The satellite’s local time of ascending node crossing of 13.30 h has been chosen to facilitate the so-called loose formation operation with NASA’s Suomi-NPP spacecraft. This concept will allow the utilization of co-located, high resolution cloud mask data provided by the VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) instrument on-board Suomi-NPP during routine processing of the TROPOMI methane product.

The Copernicus Sentinel-5 Precursor mission reduces gaps in the availability of global atmospheric data products between SCIAMACHY/Envisat (which ended in April 2012), the OMI/AURA mission and the future Copernicus Sentinel-4 and Sentinel-5 missions.

Further information on Sentinel-5P can be found at https://sentiwiki.copernicus.eu/web/s5p-mission